MapMyFitness launches a premium subscription with advanced body-tracking and more than 80m routes

The team behind MapMyFitness has released a batch of new features today including route recommendations, custom splits and advanced heart rate metrics in order to keep pace with some of its health and fitness app rivals, such as Runtastic and RunKeeper.

The new ‘Route Recommender’ – which is available not only online but also in the company’s fitness apps, which include MapMyRun, MapMyRide, MapMyWalk and MapMyHike – includes more than 80 million streets and trails to explore. It’s a hefty figure, and one that should eclipse the curated offerings on Nike+.

Users only need to enter their desired area and the distance they want to travel in order to get some safe, functional routes to try out. There’s also a number of new advanced mapping tools that allow runners and walkers to plan, customize and share routes with map markers, which can be used to call out water stops, the total number of miles completed and turn-by-turn directions.

“Other apps only give you manually drawn out routes, previously user-generated maps or a limited number of options,” a spokesperson for MapMyFitness said.

While that’s true, we’ve also seen most of these features, in some shape or form, available on other apps before now. The problem is that MapMyFitness offers all of these updated tools as part of its premium subscription package, which currently costs $5.99 a month.

To try to sweeten the deal, MapMyFitness has also included heart rate, ‘power’ and ‘cadence’ analysis, designed to break down your fitness data and further enhance your daily workout and longterm training.

On top of that is custom splits, advanced leaderboard filters, live tracking and training plans. It’s a robust feature set, to be sure, but it might not be enough to sway users who are already tied onto alternative, free services and apps.

However, Robin Thurston, CEO of MapMyFitness, says the new ‘MVP’ subscription is the most competitive premium service available to users. “With one price point, we hope to engage more users and make these advanced training tools more accessible, creating a completely seamless experience on both web and mobile platforms,” he said.

It’s worth noting that despite these new features, the standard free functionality of MapMyFitness, which includes mapping, logging and sharing workouts, will remain the same.

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